Primal Regression

By Princess_Lil
Inspired by this picture by Mervvin
Audiobook

The large man gasped as much air as he could. His breastplate felt heavy around his torso.
Golems laid around him in pieces. He lifted his mighty maul and pointed it at the sorcerer
standing on a high platform in the sorcerer’s own library. “Don’t worry, ladies, I will take care of
this sorcerer myself!”

The evil sorcerer’s tower was quite the difficult slog. Though, that was largely because Garholt
refused help from the rest of the party. Now he stood at the top of the tower, surrounded by
books and magical tools.

“Garholt!” one of the three women called out – a priestess with pink hair dressed in a white robe
that fell just below her knees. The healer of the bunch clasped her hands together, eyes wide,
tears in her eyes. “Please! Let us assist you!”

The other two women didn’t share Grace’s desperation. One, a half-elf with long green, skillfully
braided hair dressed in the traditional leaf weave of her forest home, hid her cringing face with
the smile she was so used to displaying. “Yeah! Let us help! I’ve got a bow! I can actually reach
him!” Lilah shouted. “You’d have to like, jump up there and–really I can just shoot an arrow!”

The final woman, a very short half-dragon in a red, black, and gold dress resembling a
princess’s, though it barely hung below her knees, didn’t hide her contempt. She glared a hole in
the back of Garholt’s head. “Goooo Garholt,” she faux-cheered. By her own estimations, she
was far stronger than Garholt. He might have an oversized maul and some armor, but Diagora
was half-dragon! The princess should just spit fire, burn the sorcerer, and end this charade.

“Yes… yes! I do this with your support, with your dedication! Please ladies, stand back! This is
no matter for the delicate!” the large man said. He hefted his maul and ran right toward the
platform at the back of the room.

The sorcerer let out a mad cackle as he reached for a staff. He pointed it at Garholt and mocked
the paladin, “You buffoon! You may have destroyed my golems, but I’ll show you what sort of
beast lies beneath your armor!” With a wicked cackle, he focused his magic power through his
staff, shooting a wide beam that enveloped the paladin.

“Your magic won’t break through my wall of fai–urghn!” Garholt tried to resist, but the sorcerer’s
magic was too strong. His skin itched, and the itch grew more and more powerful. “What have
you done to me? A simple itching spell? Hah! I’m far too… ah… This really–” He dropped his
maul and scrambled to yank off his armor.
The sorcerer let out a mad cackle. “Fool!” He stepped to the edge of the platform to admire his
work. “You three, watch your knight in shining armor lose control of himself and know you’re
next!”

Diagora groaned. “Lilah, please use one of your druid-root-arrow things.”

“Oh yeah!” Lilah knocked an arrow, but before she could let it fly, Garholt interrupted her.

“Don’t my lady!” He managed to stop scratching himself and raised an arm to signal for Lilah to
stop. “No simple spell will bring me low! I can’t bear the thought of you having blood on your
hands! Please just let me… let me…!”

The three women watched in awe as fur grew from the paladin’s arm and ran all the way down
the back of his hands. “What have you done to me…?” Garholt asked. Fur ran across his entire
body, leaving only his face and palms without hair. He lost balance and stumbled forward, falling
onto his face. He hurriedly shook his boots off and tried to stand just to fall over again.

“A simple primal regression spell. I’m taking you all the way back, further than any ancestor you
can think of, back further than a caveman! You’ll be nothing but a small stupid ape, incapable of
speech and lost in a primitive mind! There won’t be an ounce of a knight in shining armor left of
you! But you’ll make an excellent test subject for my spells.”

“No…!” Garholt gasped. His bones started to transform, his palms becoming less dextrous while
the soles of his feet turned into something closer to hands! His fur grew thicker as his body
shrank before it finally turned into a short but thick coat. He let out grunts as his jaw popped and
his skull slowly reshaped. With his brain unable to keep human intelligence, he was left grunting
in confusion as he stood up, though his knuckles dragged on the ground giving him a barely
bipedal stance. He looked around, confused by what he was seeing, unable to comprehend any
of it.

“Garholt…” the priestess trailed off. “I–I can fix this!” she shouted. She ran forward toward
Garholt, hand extended as it swelled with light. She wasn’t confident she could uncurse Garholt
without preparation, but she had to try! No one deserved that!

“A shame such a beauty as yourself will be joining him!” the sorcerer laughed. He pointed his
staff at Grace and shot another wave of distorted light.

Grace’s eyes widened. She realized her stupidity too late. Now she was going to end up like
Garholt, and neither Diagora nor Lilah could break the curse. She’d just doomed him and
herself! But at the last second, before the magical beam reached her, Diagora shoved her aside,
instead taking the spell in Grace’s place.

The half-dragon growled and turned to face the sorcerer. “Do you think I’ll turn into some
prehistoric ape?” Smoke plumed from her nose. The scales on her face spread across it. She
grunted as her face slowly pushed out into more of a snout. “You idiot!” she shouted even as red
scales flourished across her body. “Playing with this sort of magic–how dare you!”

“Maybe if we stop him, the magic will end!” Lilah finally let her knocked arrow fly, though it
bounced helplessly off a barrier that surrounded the mage.

“Pathetic!” the sorcerer sneered at Lilah. Perhaps she should be next! She was certainly
physically stronger than the priestess, but would the spell even affect someone with elven
blood? He’d find a way to dispose of her and take the priestess as another test subject.

“Don’t look at her! Finish what you started human scum,” Diagora spat, her temper flaring. She
was losing control, moment by moment she could feel something powerful welling up inside her.
Instincts, greed, lust, emotions stronger than any human could comprehend!

The sorcerer turned his attention back to the struggling Diagora. “Oh I know exactly what I’ve
done. A half-dragon like you will become a ferocious beast, and when you’re transformed, I’ll
make you into my guard dog!” he cackled.

Diagora grunted. Her hands slowly turned into claws, her tail lengthened behind her, her feet
grew, destroying the boots she wore and revealing sharp claws where her toes once were. She
clutched her head as her horns lengthened. “Dammit…!” she groaned.

“Diagora!” the pink haired priestess called out, running to her friend and clearly not learning her
lesson. The sorcerer didn’t dare use his staff again – if he hit Diagora again, she would certainly
become a full dragon, and that would be too much for even him to control. “Here, I can help!”
Grace’s hand once again filled with light. She placed her hand on Diagora’s back and channeled
what healing magic she could into the increasingly draconic princess!

“Get back!” Diagora yelled. The petite young woman slowly grew, getting larger and larger
before everyone’s eyes. Her dress strained, ripping as she grew. Where an under five foot
woman previously stood, a draconic beast over eight foot tall rose! The tattered remains of her
dress squeezed her now much larger form. Still clutching her head, she let out one more roar
making everyone in the room flinch and the primitive Garholt run under a desk in fear.

“Perfect! Now become my guard do–” the sorcerer didn’t get to finish gloating. In the time he
spoke the words, a horrible realization set in. One look into Diagora’s eyes was all it took for him
to realize he was nothing compared to this beast – this dragoness.

Diagora bounded up the platform and ripped away the sorcerer’s pathetic barrier with a swipe of
her claws. She hunched over, staring into the sorcerer’s eyes. She roared once more. Out of
fear, the sorcerer fainted right where he stood.

The now savage princess planted a foot on the unconscious sorcerer’s chest. She roared once
more to celebrate her victory.
“Princess Diagora?” Lilah squeaked. “Are you okay? Are you still in there? I know dragons are
really super smart, so…?”
Diagora turned her head and looked over Grace and Lilah. Indeed, dragons were smart, but
Diagora was more instinct than anything else anymore, and she was a dragon in the presence
of two beautiful women. She stuck her tongue out as if to taste the air. She could taste Grace
and Lilah’s scent.

“Oh… oh no,” Grace turned and started running for the door. “Lilah! We have to get away! We
have to–”

Once again Diagora lept, landing right behind Grace and, with one fluid motion, scooped her up
under her arm. She glanced over at Lilah and bared her teeth. Plumes of smoke wafted from
her nose holes.

“Put me down!” Grace kicked and flailed, but all she got was a tighter squeeze from Diagora to
make her stop. “Lilah! Get away while you still can!” Grace cried.

Lilah stumbled backward, but in the face of such a beast, she lost her nerve. The way Diagora
looked at her with that lust filled expression – there was no escape no matter what she did. She
was a prey animal caught in the gaze of an apex predator. “She’s still Diagora, but her instincts
have taken over! Think about how possessive she already is with women and run! You have to
find help, or we’ll be stuck as her belongings!” Grace tried to warn Lilah, but there was no point.
Diagora crossed the room on her long legs and snatched the paralyzed half-elf up under her
other arm before letting out another triumphant roar.

She looked at the door to the stairwell – now too small for her – and instead shot a blast of fire,
casually destroying a wall without care. She didn’t bother to look back at the sorcerer who had
changed her or the annoying former paladin who hid away as a cowardly beast.

Luckily for them, they weren’t worth her time compared to the prizes under her arms.

She jumped from the tower, landing softly enough to not hurt her delicate treasures. With
confidence, she strode across the land.

“...can’t believe I froze up.” Lilah whined. She struggled against Diagora’s grip, but even the
athletic half-elf couldn’t so much as budge the powerful dragoness’s arm. Diagora barely
acknowledged the struggle, only briefly squeezing Lilah to get her to stop being a nuisance.

“At least it looks like we’re heading in the direction of Desthoria. Likely to her hoard,” Grace
sighed. “This is going to be so hard to explain to her father, but at least the mages there might
be able to undo it. It can’t take forever, right?” Grace squeaked.

The two women sighed and said in unison “We can hope.”